


Visions of the Future

by Nihes



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Jedi Apprentice Series - Jude Watson & Dave Wolverton, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Force Visions, Gen, Headcanon, Kyber Crystals, Pre-Canon, Prophecy, The Force, pre-JA series, pre-TPM, the chosen one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 12:22:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16305137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nihes/pseuds/Nihes
Summary: A Jedi's lightsaber is his life, the lightsaber's heart is its kyber crystal and the kyber crystal is one with a Jedi's soul. The moment a kyber crystal and a Jedi bond, the Jedi's future is revealed to them in a powerful vision.Young Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn can come up with only one plausible interpretation for his crystal vision:He is destined to train the Chosen One.





	Visions of the Future

**Author's Note:**

> It is official, I am posting my first fanficiton ever! 
> 
> Be advised English is not my native language and I am afraid it shows (especially when it comes to commas).
> 
> This story came into being because the author was recently forced to watch TPM again and couldn't help but wonder about Qui-Gon Jinn's irrational behavior throughout the whole movie. Why was he so obsessed with Anakin and the Chosen One prophecy? This is my personal theory regarding that subject. Enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars

# Visions of the Future

Freshly knighted Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn felt like an ice block when he emerged from the ice caves of Ilum, his new kyber crystal safely tucked away in the chest pocket of his cold-weather gear. Force, why had the crystal caves to be located on this frigid excuse of a planet? He could swear that there were icicles beginning to grow in his still too short hair. He absently ran a hand through his spiky, brown hair that was just beginning to grow out of the ridiculous Padawan haircut (Never again in his life would he willingly cut his hair!). No, there were no icicles. He could have sworn he had felt some earlier. Whatever. It was time that he got out of here, but first he had to construct his new lightsaber. He was a Jedi Knight now, running around with a Padawan's lightsaber simply would no longer do.  

Qui-Gon confidently strode toward the center of the antechamber of the temple and gracefully sat down on the cold stone floor. The sun was just beginning to set and the antechamber was still bathed in the weak light of the sun, warming the air to something almost close to bearably cold instead of deadly freezing. 

Ignoring the chill seeping into his bones, he almost reverently spread out a collection of mechanical and electrical parts on the floor before him. Then he removed his new, faintly glowing green kyber crystal from his chest pocket and closed his fingers around it, clasping it tightly in his hand. The crystal pulsed faintly in his hand, greeting him like an old friend and Qui-Gon could easily pick out his crystal's song in the Force as it called out to him. 

A Jedi's lightsaber was his life, the lightsaber's heart was its kyber crystal and the kyber crystal was one with a Jedi's soul. The crystal chose the Jedi and his new kyber crystal was clearly eager to begin their journey together. Smiling faintly at the feeling of anticipation emanating from the crystal, Qui-Gon settled into his preferred meditation pose and closed his eyes, crystal still firmly clasped in his hand. 

Opening his mind to the Force, he opened his hand and with a slight push of the Force allowed the crystal on his palm to float into the air before him. The warm feeling of anticipation in the Force intensified and Qui-Gon allowed himself to enjoy the moment just a few seconds longer before extending his Force senses to encompass the lightsaber parts spread out around him. Without moving a muscle he lifted the parts with help of the Force and let them gather around the hovering crystal. A slight mental push and the metal parts started an intricate dance of airborne movements, weaving themselves around the still floating crystal until a completed lightsaber floated at chest height before him. Without opening his eyes he raised his right hand and closed it around the hilt of his new lightsaber, enjoying the feeling of the smooth hilt in his well-calloused hand.

Taking a deep breath he prepared himself for the last step. Activating a lightsaber for the first time was always an overwhelming experience. It was the moment when a lightsaber truly connected with its wielder's soul, forming a bond in the Force and, for a few moments, allowing the Jedi to see beyond his normal self and see visions of his future that, if correctly interpreted, could reveal a Jedi's destiny. The intensity of these visions varied greatly, depending on the Jedi's level of skill in the Force. While Initiates or Padawans lacked the skill to perceive more than vague feelings or perhaps blurry images when they built their first lightsabers, a Knight or Master usually experienced tangible visions of their future even if their interpretation was often difficult, if not utterly impossible. 

It had been more then a decade since Qui-Gon had built his Padawan lightsaber and back then all he had seen was a vague impression of a long and winding path. But now he was a Knight, powerful in the Force, and he expected it to be very different from his last experience. Taking another breath he pressed the activation button of the 'saber and the outward world fell away as the green blade ignited for the first time and the accompanying Force vision overwhelmed all his senses.

After what felt like a lifetime, he became aware of his surroundings again and found himself squinting in the cold light that was reflected from the iced chamber walls. Breathing deeply he extinguished his new lightsaber and collected himself before slowly standing up with creaking joints and stiff limbs. Grimacing as he finally felt the cold in his bones again, he made his way out of the antechamber and back to his spaceship, deep in thought the entire way. 

Due to his lack of connection to the Unifying Force he had no experience with visions and to be honest, he didn't think much of those vague warnings students of the Unifying Force sometimes experienced in their sleep or during meditation. As far as he knew it never amounted to anything good if one tried to influence the events that could be seen during those visions and they were often direct results of a Jedi's fears without any truth in them anyway. No, Qui-Gon Jinn allowed himself to be guided only by the Living Force that focused solely on the Here and Now. Qui-Gon's connection to this aspect of the Force was almost unrivaled within the Order and it had never led him astray. 

Therefore, he was not used to paying attention to intangible things like visions, but he knew better than to disregard a kyber crystal vision. Those visions were messages delivered by both the Unifying and the Living Force and - just like genuine prophecies - had therefore another status than Force-induced nightmares. A correct interpretation of a kyber crystal vision could unlock the mystery of a Jedi's destiny and only a fool would ignore them. He would have to meditate on his vision, but he was determined to decipher its meaning. 

***

As soon as his shuttle breached the atmosphere of the planet Qui-Gon set course back to Coruscant and entered hyperspace. With the autopilot safely engaged Qui-Gon settled back into the pilot's chair and fell into meditation to analyze the images the Force had shown him:

He was hurrying along a winding path in a moonless night, hunted by an ever thickening, unnatural dark fog that followed him like a predator stalking its prey. Qui-Gon pressed on, desperately trying to outrun the creeping Darkness that was now nipping tauntingly at his heels, promising death and despair. But no matter how fast he ran, the fog kept up with him, its icy tendrils reaching out to him, biting painfully into the bare skin of his arms and his face. He tried to batter the tendrils away, but it was to no avail. He needed to go faster!

Qui-Gon stumbled forward, pure panic threatening to overwhelm him, when he finally glimpsed a small light hovering on the path ahead of him. With a cry he reached out toward the glowing orb, silently begging it for help.  A small tendril of light emerged from the orb in answer to his plea and grasped his hand. As they made contact, warmth flooded through Qui-Gon and he almost sobbed in relief. The Darkness could no longer touch him.

Drawing on Qui-Gon's strength, the light began to grow  in size and brightness until Qui-Gon was bathed in its warm glow and the dark fog hissed in displeasure as it was forced to retreat.  Tendrils of the sickening blackness tried to lash out at the light but were burned away before they could touch it. The Darkness screeched with fury and quickly surrounded Qui-Gon and his companion, waiting for its chance to strike them down. 

Qui-Gon immediately reached out to the light with his mind, doing his best to support and encourage it and the light answered with a pulse of warmth and belonging. Together they gathered their strength and prepared to strike the Darkness down once and for all, but the Darkness was faster. Suddenly it lunged toward them, attacking from all sides at once.  The light faltered, shuddering in pain and terror as tendrils of sickening blackness battered at it. The Darkness cackled in delight, confident in its victory. No!  Qui-Gon pushed all his strength down their bond and  suddenly the light surged outward in an explosion of warmth and brightness, burning away the sickening darkness and igniting a million stars in the night sky. 

 

As expected the images were difficult to interpret, though when he opened his eyes after several hours of meditation he thought he understood at least a part of his vision. The dark fog had tasted of the Dark Side of the Force, trying to crush him and the Light Side for good. The rest was still somewhat of a mystery to him. The light that had vanquished the darkness obviously had some sort of connection to him, exactly what kind of connection he was not sure yet.

Qui-Gon absentmindedly tapped his fingers on the edge of the control panel in front of him and watched the stars race past him, blurred into lines by hyperspace travel. Humming softly under his breath, Qui-Gon gave the flight controls of the shuttle a cursory glance, checking that nothing was amis before getting up from his chair and leaving the cockpit for the small galley in the back. He went through the motions of preparing a mug of tea without conscious thought, while his mind never left the puzzle of his Force vision. 

He was just about to take a first sip of his tea when a jolt ran through him as a thought struck him with the power of a lightning bolt. His tea all but forgotten, he set down the cup with too much force and left the kitchen to grab his datapad from where he had left it in the adjourning sleeping area. With trembling fingers he started tapping at the pad, calling up an old collection of Jedi prophecies concerning a being called the Chosen One. Could it be? Was the prophecy of the Chosen One about to be fulfilled? And would he, Qui-Gon Jinn, play a part in it? Simultaneously excited and terrified by this prospect, Qui-Gon sat down right there on the floor of the space shuttle and started reading. 

***

When his shuttle finally approached Coruscant four days later, he had spent almost the whole four days sitting on the floor of his shuttle, datapads and flimsi printouts scattered around him in a chaotic circle as he tried to read through all the data concerning the prophecy of the Chosen One that was available in the Jedi Archives. At one point he had even interrupted his hyperspace jump in order to be able to access the datanet of the Temple and download additional data. He had downloaded about a hundred documents that mentioned the prophecy and so far the only things he knew for sure was that, one, the Jedi had stopped bothering with the prophecy after the Ruusan Reformation, (The youngest text he had been able to find was more than eight hundred years old, for Force's sake!) and that two, research concerning the Chosen One was a time-consuming nightmare. He had barely taken the time to sleep and eat so engrossed had he been in his work and he had barely scratched the surface of the topic! 

He had, of course, began his studies by rereading the official, Basic version of the prophecy that foretold the rise of a 'Jedi of unique strength ' who would 'destroy the Sith' and 'bring balance to the Force' in a time when 'utmost darkness threatened to swallow all light'. 

That sounded simple enough for Qui-Gon, but it seemed that translating and interpreting prophecies could be rather tricky and a lot of scholars had wasted stacks of flimsi interpreting and analyzing those few key phrases. The problem with this specific prophecy was that it was an extremely old one, the original long lost during the destruction of the Temple of Ossus, and of course, the original had also been written down in a long forgotten language. Therefore, the prophecy had, over the period of several millennia, been translated into several more modern languages, resulting in more than a dozen different versions of the prophecy written down in five different - nowadays outdated - languages. Those translated copies all varied slightly in content and, except for the 'official' version, had never been translated into Basic.

In an attempt to reconstruct the key messages of the original prophecy, dozens of Jedi scholars had tried to trace the prophecy back to its origins and had written interpretations of the various versions available, taking into consideration possible translation errors and other errors often found in such old, passed down texts. Unfortunately, those scholars rarely agreed with each other, which resulted in a whole stack of documents disagreeing on pretty much everything and, as those texts had been written before the Ruusan Reformation, were written in Old Galactic Standard, that Qui-Gon had trouble understanding. 

As if that was not bad enough, there existed several other prophecies and transcripts of visions written down by Jedi or members of other Force cults that were connected to the prophecy of the Chosen One and frequently contradicted each other as well as the official version of the prophecy. At last there were some historical texts that argued that the Chosen One had most likely been born in the Dark Age but had been killed by the Sith during the Jedi Purge before they could come into their powers and that the prophecy would therefore remain unfulfilled. 

In other words, research concerning the Chosen One was a task that would take years to perform thoroughly. Four days of research had barely been enough time to read a fraction of the available documents much less analyze and interpret them properly. He was no closer in knowing how to find the Chosen One or how they would vanquish the Dark Side. His task was far from complete, but considering what he had read so far, he could come up only with one interpretation for his vision:

He was destined to find and train the Chosen One.

This conclusion bordered on arrogance unbecoming of a Jedi Knight, he was well aware of that, and yet... What other explanation was there? He could think of none.

In his vision he had found and supported a being of unrivaled light, that had conquered an all-consuming darkness. The light was obviously the Chosen One and their connection symbolized a training bond.

He would train the Chosen One!

The thought was thrilling, but he was getting ahead of himself. At the moment he was only a freshly minted Knight who was far too inexperienced to take up a responsibility like that. No, it would undoubtedly still be some years before the Chosen One would be found. At the moment he could only continue to study the prophecy and keep his eyes open for a child with extraordinary power in the Force. If he ever found such a child, he would bring them to the Jedi Temple and take them as his Padawan learner as soon as possible. Until then there really was nothing he could do except doing his best to become a Jedi Master worthy of teaching the Chosen One. 

With his mind made up, Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn brought his shuttle out of hyperspace and started his approach to the Jedi Temple.

**Author's Note:**

> Is Qui-Gon Jinn destined to train the Chosen One? Honestly.... I don't think so. At least his vision was never about the Chosen One. In his vision he saw how his failure with Xanatos kept haunting him and how Obi-Wan helped him survive Xanatos' plans for revenge and conquer his own demons. 
> 
> This was originally planned to be nothing more than a one shot, but now I am stuck with one of those 'what if' plot bunnies that simply refuses to leave me alone. What if TPM had ended differently? What if Qui-Gon had lived and become absolutely obsessed with training Anakin? What would have happened to Obi-Wan? And does a high midi-chlorian count really mean that somebody is special?
> 
> Seems like this just became sort of a prologue for a major AU series....


End file.
